ISTANBUL (AP) – Two students were arrested in Turkey on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values by a poster depicting the most sacred place in Islam with LGBT flags.
Their arrest came at the end of Saturday, after top Turkish officials hit the poster, displayed at an exhibition at the most prestigious University of Bogazici in Turkey. For weeks, students and teachers protested the Turkish president’s appointment of a new rector who has ties to his ruling party and started clashes with the police.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted that “LGBT perverts” were detained for “disrespecting the Great Kaaba”. Government officials from Turkey’s conservative and Islamic party condemned the poster. The spokesman for the main opposition party, strongly secular, also criticized the work of art as a provocation, calling it an attack on sacred values.
His statements came after the university’s Islamic research club posted the poster on social media, prompting people to use hashtags on Twitter denouncing the poster, LGBTs and the university. The country’s religious affairs director, who previously caused controversy by saying that homosexuality brings disease and was defended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he was criticized, said he would take legal action.
Kaaba in Mecca is the most sacred place in Islam, with believers from all over the world praying in its direction.
The poster featured a mythical creature half woman and half snake found in Middle Eastern folklore at the place of worship along with flags of LGBT, lesbian, trans and asexual people. The text below says that the artwork is a criticism of traditional gender roles.
The Istanbul governor’s office said five people were initially arrested and the police were looking for two more suspects. One person was released, two were placed under house arrest and two are in custody pending trial.
The police searched the university’s fine arts and LGBTI + student clubs. The statement said the police found books about an illegal Kurdish group and rainbow flags.
Melih Bulu, the rector under protest, tweeted that an attack on Islamic values was unacceptable and had no place in the university’s values.
The Bogazici Solidarity student group said the display of more than 300 works of art was in part to protest the new rector and acknowledged that Muslim students had problems with the poster.
“All works of art are open to criticism. But putting art on trial is simply a restriction on freedom of expression, ”says the statement. The group emphasized the value of pluralism at the university and said that hate speech based on sexual orientation and gender identity was unacceptable.
The university’s LGBTI + group tweeted that it was with its friends and said it rejected the new dean “who was targeting his own students”.